This is part 12 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here.
In 1873, after the Council of Gods was turned into a government ministry, a group of Shinto priests sent a letter to the Japanese government. They called for the Council of Gods to be reinstated because they didn’t see Shinto as just a religion. Instead, they believed Shinto was a form of “national tradition” rooted in the customs of the imperial family, going back to the “Divine Age.” To them, Shinto and the government were deeply connected, so they wanted the Council of Gods restored to strengthen this relationship.
These priests saw Shinto as a fundamental part of being Japanese and closely tied to the traditions of the emperor. They wrote: “The National Teaching of the imperial house is not a religion […] The National Teaching is Shinto… and Shinto is nothing other than the National Teaching.” Here, they argued that Shinto wasn’t a religion but a “national tradition” that naturally belonged to the state. They believed it would gain more importance and authority by officially declaring Shinto as part of the nation’s foundation. This also meant more influence for the Shinto priests, who had lost power during the long period when Shinto was blended with Buddhism.
The priests also highlighted the emperor’s divine ancestry, which they saw as proof of Japan’s special status. They wrote: “Japan is called the divine land because it is ruled by the heavenly deities’ descendants, who consolidate the work of the deities.” In their view, the emperor ruled as an extension of the gods’ will because of his divine lineage. This idea, rooted in earlier Japanese scholarship, linked Japan’s identity to its sacred origins and the emperor’s divine family line. However, the priests didn’t claim that Japan should dominate the world.
The main goal of their message was to convince the government to accept this version of history and treat Shinto not just as a religion but as an essential part of Japan’s national identity. By doing so, they hoped to strengthen Shinto—and themselves—in society.
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Sources
Theodore De Bary, William(ed.). Sources of Japanese Tradition: Volume Two 1600-2000. Colombia University Press: New York, 2005. Print. Pp. 1143-1144.
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